A New Front Yard~

We've moved again. Gulf Coast RV park was not to our liking so we scouted around and found a much nicer spot. We're closer to my Aunt and right close to the beach. We even have a deck outside our door. CJ managed to park the motorhome about 6 inches from it. I've got all the plants out there. With the awning up it's cozy as can be. There's even a resident cat who seems to like visiting. She's sleeping on my lawn chair right now. It's been a busy Sunday but we're all settled in and ready for a day on the water tomorrow. CJ's back taking a nap right now. I wore him out.

Last night was the annual Memorial of Jesus death and Chuck went with me. He was a little grumbly about wearing a tie on vacation but he looked sharp. Afterwards we went to O'Charleys for supper. I think that was his favorite part. The kingdom Hall here is quite beautiful and the friends were all quite happy to welcome us. I went back to the public talk this morning and had quite a few nice conversations with several new acquaintances. I even met another brother and sister who were visiting from Wisconsin. They are staying just down the road at the State Park in a travel trailer. When I got home Chuck already had a lot of the moving preparations under way and we were on the road to our new site within an hour. I was sure glad to say good bye to that mosquito infested park in the swamp on the Bay Secour River! By the time we were settled in to our new spot I was too tired to fix a big Sunday meal so I just threw together some sloppy joes and made some coleslaw. We even ate on paper plates. It feels good to sit here and rest a bit.

Friday we went to Fort Morgan and played on the beach. Chuck of course looked for seashells and I sunbathed on a beach towel. After we left the beach we stopped at the Nature walk trails to do some hiking but before we got too far in we came across a sign telling us it was against the law to feed the alligators. Alligators??? Well needless to say we changed our mind about hiking. So instead we did some driving and sightseeing. The cottages along the coast were precious. They were painted in all the soft colors of the coast. All built on stilts and lots of white trim. We got to see a pelican up close and he didn't mind me snapping his picture. On the road out I made CJ stop so I could take a picture of the alligator sign. I got out of the car checking the roadside ditch carefully for alligators to be safe, walked around the front of the car to snap the picture when Mr. Chuckles tooted the horn and scared the heck out of me. He's such a clown. He got a great laugh out of me almost jumping over the car. On the way back to camp we stopped at several RV parks to check out their spots and prices. We didn't see anything we were crazy about. I'm glad we decided on this spot we have now. It's close to everything including my favorite restaurant, Docs. Can't wait to go there and eat!

Click on the link below for pictures of Fort Morgan:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.6mu9x228&x=0&y=i2vb5y

Moving Day~

Moving Day has arrived at last. We've been living in Eagles Landing since December the 14th and the time has come to move on. We were up by 7:30 with the urge to hit the road. After a good deal of sorting and packing and stowing we are all set to go. Our friend Glenn from Washington Illinois is also leaving today. We had last minute good-byes with the friends left in camp. Billy helped Chuck air up the tires on the coach and we were on the road by noon. We took the smaller State Rte 90 from Holt to Milton as we'd not really test drove the coach since we had the new part installed and we weren't anxious to jump right on the Interstate with all the holiday traffic out there. Plus we were also nosey to see if there was any police activity looking for the escaped prisoner from yesterday. A Georgia police officer was transporting a prisoner back to Georgia and they had stopped at the Browns grocery store in Holt about a half mile from the park to use the bathroom and when they were returning to the police car the prisoner squirted him with some mace and jumped into his squad and sped away. It was quite a bit of excitement for such a small town. The funniest part was that the prisoner was a black male who was dressed and had the appearance of a woman. Most of the night last nite we could hear helicopters and dogs searching and as of noon when we left the RV park they still hadn't found him. He had apparently abandoned the police car just a short distance from us in a woods and lit out on foot. There are hundreds of questions as to how something like this could have taken place. I'm reminded of Barney from an Andy Griffin episode myself. Who knows what the "real" truth is. It did add some excitement to our last night in Holt Florida.
We didn't have any problems with the coach on the trip over. It ran like a top all the way to Gulf Shores. Not a hitch or hiccup. Chuck is so relieved that we have the problem fixed, for a while at least. I'm sure with a house on wheels there's bound to be a continueing saga of repair issues. We got to the RV park about 2:30 and got ourselves set up. I'm happy to report I have a huge pink azealia bush right outside my door and it's in full bloom. The park is not as nice as Eagles Landing but it will certainly do. There's a pond just a short distance from our coach that has at least 2 aligators in it and it's reported by our new neighbor that you can hear them croaking at night. He said they sound like huge frogs. I'm sure going to be anxious to hurry down there and check that out >> NOT! Well maybe we could drive the car down there and park with the windows cracked to listen.
I fixed us a Tuna Alfredo casserole for an early supper and we took off for the beach. What a beautiful sight! We know everyone says the Emerald Coast is such a beautiful beach but I have to say it doesn't compare to the beach across the road from my Aunt and Uncles condo in Orange Beach Alabama. That beach is just breath taking. I actually had tears come to my eyes when we walked across the access bridge and saw it again. The waves were pretty strong and the most beautiful light blue color and the sand was stark white. It was about 6:30 and the sky was just beginning to darken enough to make the almost full moon show up brightly just above the water. We were delighted to find a whole cache of seashells just in the short walk we took and Chuck managed to find two starfish, one was quite large. I don't remember ever seeing so many seashells on the beach here.
We noticed so much activity too. With Easter being this Sunday there were lots of extra people in the area for Spring Beach. It should be an exciting time to visit. We're looking forward to going to Fort Morgan tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be clear and sunshiny again so we should have a great day for it!

To view pictures from today click here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.28rzxv2o&x=0&y=8r179c

One of the members of my campground crafters yahoo group has a great page with some information on the price of fuel at: http://rvecafe.com/oil.html It might come in handy for mapping our travels. The price of diesel fuel is nearing $4.00 a gallon and in some areas it's over that.

Fish Frys, Farewells & Final Flings

Winter is coming to a close. The birds are beginning to sing, the days are getting longer and the weather is warming up. Our evenings of bringing in the plants to avoid frost damage are past. In two days we will be pulling up stakes here in Holt Florida and making our way to Gulf Shores Alabama. Preparations have begun in earnest. A lot of the friends we've made here this winter have already started pulling out and are heading north. The park is starting to have an echo. I think Chuck and I are going to be some of the last ones to leave. It will be sad to say good bye but my feet are getting itchy

A couple weeks ago, our friends Deb and Ty had a fish fry which was our last big hurrah. Debs daughter in Alaska sent her a shipment of Salmon and Halibut so they arraigned a get together for all of us. We all brought food to share & I took Chucks favorite, deviled eggs. He'd been craving them so when Deb asked what we'd like to bring he immediately volunteered them. Just to make him especially happy I put a generous portion of horseradish in half of them. I also braved my unfamiliar convection oven and baked a couple pecan pies with the pecans he's been shelling all winter. It was a wonderful Sunday afternoon of visiting and storytelling.

Chuck and I have been working in some last minute sight seeing. We've been to the beach a few more times searching for more shells. We also did some shopping at the outlet mall in Destin and hit the Chocolate Factory. It was quite windy that day and the visit to the beach was a short one cause it was too chilly and the waves were too too high. We went across the brand new toll bridge at Niceville which cost $2.50. I can't believe how much they charge for tolls down here.

We've made a couple trips into Pensacola with our friends Bill and Amy from here in the RV park. Amy's got us eating wholesome raw vegetables for our diets and she knows of a great health food coop on Garden Street in downtown Pensicola. It's called Ever'mans. We joined it for $12 and got over $50 in free food. Everything there is organic. We're working on getting our pH back to normal and our livers cleaned out. It's supposed to help Chucks high blood pressure and my diabetes and asthma. It should also do wonders for our aches and pains. If it works I'll get mom on it when I get back to Illinois.

We ate at McGuires in Destin where they have over a half million one dollar bills signed and hanging from the ceiling and booths and walls. That was quite a sight! They had a $100 hamburger on the menu which stood out but the rest was mostly good old fashioned Irish food. Chuck ordered a bowl of their 18cent bean soup which was the same recipe as the Washington Senate soup. They brew their own beer and root beer, we chose to have a pitcher of the latter. We also took a trip through their gift & wine shop and found a bottle of imported Irish Meade. It's traditional honey wine made for honeymooners. So naturally we couldn't pass that up.

We also went in to Pensicola to say goodbye to our friends Dave and Laura. We all went out to eat at Smokies Bar-b-cue. Chuck had the all you can eat ribs and I of course had to have pulled pork. Dave and Laura have gotten a new puppy which they named Lady. She's a black and white party cocker and quite charming. She will make a wonderful companion for Goldie. Watching the two of them play is hilarious! We are going to miss Dave and Laura as they've become close friends.

We went to the Crestview Bluegrass Festival where we enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw. The streets were lined with pork choices as they were having a pork cook off that day and all were competing for prizes. We saw a cute golf cart styled after the 34 Fords for a mere price of $16,000. Wouldn't that be nice to have? There was a stage where we saw bluegrass bands playing some really good music. The day was a bit windy but the sun was bright and warm.

We went to the air force museum at Fort Walton and toured the grounds and saw all the old airplanes and fighter jets. We weren't able to go inside because it was closed for air conditioner repairs so we missed seeing all the bombs which didn't really upset me at all.

We got a part put on the coach which we think may have fixed our mechanical problem. Chuck's been in contact with some people over the Internet and found out that the problem could most likely be solved by installing a new fuel shutoff solenoid. Hopefully it will work, it was certainly expensive enough! We couldn't test drive it afterwards cause it was too windy to get out on the highway and get the speed up over 65. We'll find out Wednesday when we head for Gulf Shores.

Yesterday we took a drive over to Andalusia Alabama to check out some RV Parks. We came across a Lawnmower tractor racetrack with red red dirt. It has free admission and races every Saturday night. I can imagine that's a big hit over there with all those Alabama boys! They have a huge lake over there off the Conecuh River. On the way back we found a very nice National Forest Park we might like to spend a couple weeks at next year. There's a small lake in the park called Open Pond. There were some really interesting oak trees around it with all kinds of twisty arm limbs. While we were there checking it out we came across a gecko with a beautiful blue color on it's tummy. He was sunning himself in a nook in a log shelter. He was nice enough to let me get close so I could take some pictures. It was a beautiful day for the drive. We really enjoyed it.

Last week, here at the Eagles Landing RV park an interesting wildly painted motor home came in. The people who own it are traveling ta too artists. There also was a trailer fire in the park a couple weeks ago. A very nice young girl who lives here full time and is a waitress in Crestview was fortunate to get out of her burning travel trailer just in time thanks to one of the other RVers named Todd who happened to be out walking his dog. Thank goodness she has full coverage with her insurance cause her trailer was totalled. Her refrigerator had some kind of electrical problem and caught fire in the early morning while she was still sleeping. She's now staying with friends while she waits to get her home replaced.

We also met a Canadian Couple a few days ago named Peggi and John McDonald. Peggi is the owner of an RVing information web page. She's got lots of exciting things on her site and she has even published a couple hard copy books. I bought her latest and she autographed it. They travel full time and have been for 27 years. She gives seminars at RV Conventions around the United States and Canada. She's done some interesting things with her Luxor motor home. She gave Chuck and I some ideas for ours. Her web site is http://www.rvliving.net/

Today and tomorrow we will spend getting things packed up for our move. Right now Chuck is out spraying down the big rug we had at the door so it can have a couple days to dry. He wants to wash the coach again before we go and it's suppose to be sunny & up in the 80's so he should have good weather for it. We're starting to get antsy to be heading down the road for more adventure. We've been here for 3 months and have gotten to know the area pretty well. We've enjoyed it so much. We love the park we're in and Dick and Judie, the camp hosts are such good people. They've put together their story on a web site also. If you'd like to visit the web site for information on their recreation club and see pictures of Eagles Landing and look up some of their other sister campgrounds go to: http://www.campingandcampgrounds.com/

I've put together a slide show of pictures to highlight the last couple weeks. Click on the link below to view them.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.abfocn9s&x=0&y=-hanov0

CJ See's Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

Sunday 2/24/08

It's "SUN"DAY!!! The sun is out bright and warm again today. In fact it's a bit warmer than yesterday. We decide to brave the beach. I've made up some potato salad and fresh chicken salad to have a picnic with. Last night we picked up some Strawberry Shortcake fixins. I just got back from a great meeting in Crestview and good visit with the friends there. It's shaping up to be a wonderful day. We've got to go over to Navarre Beach to visit the Camping World. Our friend Bill, here in the park gave us a water filter we needed for the coach and we want to replace it for him. We've not been able to find them at WallyWorld and we heard they've got them at Camping World. I love going there. It's got all the fancy little doo dads a camper loves. Today I even found a couple hot dog sticks for campfires. CJ found some rubber caulk to use as a seal for the new light he's going to put on the side of the coach. We get some more of those little clips that hold our basement doors open while we are fishing through them. They've got an Alfa See Ya Gold parked out front. A used late model diesel that is 40 ft. long with 2 large slides. Of course we had to look through it before we leave. The seats and couches are made of white leather. It's as roomy as a house inside. There's a real oven in the kitchen and a nice size pantry. The cabinets, though, are all made of pressed board and none of them close squarely and you'd have to use a foot stool to get into them. The smell of formaldehyde is present even with the windows all open. It does have a washer/dryer and the closet with the sliding mirrored doors is huge but those are the only 2 pluses. The more I tour these giant new high dollar coaches, the more I love our 36 foot Monaco with the solid maple woodwork and cabinets. We have plenty of room and I can reach everything. We always get compliments on how well our rig looks. It's classic & Chuck and I both love that!

Back on the road again, we head over to the RV Park where my great Aunt Charlene lives. We had a nice visit with her and invited her to our picnic but she's not feeling well today. She's got high blood pressure and it's making her a bit unsteady on her feet. She's 84 and still in reasonable good health except for her blood pressure. She is one of 16 brothers and sisters of which my dad's dad was born into. Her and Uncle Bill are the only ones left now. She's living down here in Florida and all her children are living here within a few miles of each other. She has a travel trailer parked in an RV park that only costs her $450 a month. It's quite a nice one too, right on the water. She told us if she was to live in a small efficiency apartment it would cost over $1000 a month and she'd not have a bit more room than she does now. She loves walking down to the beach and sitting in the warm sunshine. They've got a lovely area finished off with plenty of chairs and chaises and tables with umbrellas. CJ and I checked into getting our coach in there next winter for a month and they told us they'll only accept coaches newer than 10 years old on the monthly rate. Well, La Di Dah for them. Guess they don't see too many 20 year olds as nice as ours!

Before we leave Charlene's we manage to get some nice pictures to show my folks when we get home. I always enjoy visiting with my older relatives. They are full of so many nice stories about the old days. I could stay and stay listening, but since Charlene's a bit under the weather today we don't want to tire her out too badly and soon we are off to our picnic at the beach.

When we get to the beach we discover it's quite cool even with the sun shining brightly. The breeze is coming off the gulf fairly strong. The waves are crashing onto the shore stronger than I've ever seen on the gulf side. There are even some kids surfing. We decided to eat first and then go hunt for seashells. Not far from where we picnic there's a couple hundred motorcycles parked at a bar with an outdoor concert going on. They are playing the old classics and Chuck and I enjoy watching them while we eat. I decided it was much too chilly to wear only my swimsuit so I stay covered up and after we stow our picnic fixings back in the trunk we head to the shore. We have to cross over the dunes on wooden dock type walkways. The beach is quite crowded with families and even a few fishermen. The color of the water is the most beautiful shade of turquoise. Chuck is excited to get down to the water and start looking for shells. It's one of his favorite things to do down here and you know how men are. The love to hunt ANYTHING! He's usually pretty cautious when he first gets started as he doesn't swim, but soon he gets so caught up in the game that he's out into waves up to his knees. Today there's some sandbar areas that stretch out quite a ways with only a couple inches of water before you get into the deep area. After I go out and he sees how shallow it is, he's right out there too. It's too cold for me to stay out very long so I come back to shore and enjoy my time taking pictures of him having so much fun. Every time he gets a big shell he holds it up for me to ooh and ahh over. We stayed out for a couple hours before calling it quits and he ends up with a nice collection for the day.

Just after we cross over the long bridge from the beach Chuck spots a half sunken old boat and he stops to take some pictures. He even met a couple there from up by Chicago taking pictures also. The boat had been damaged in the Hurricane and was waiting a team to come dismantle it.

The next morning (Monday) when I got up he had all his seashells cleaned and layed out on the picnic table for me to admire and I snapped some pictures for the album.

I've been having some problems staying on line for longer than 15 minutes and Chuck gets on the phone with tech help to figure it out. I have so many pictures to upload for my blogs and it takes a while. I can only do a few at a time before I get bumped offline. I'm not sure what the problem but Mr. Fixit manages to get it solved. The day actually makes it up into the 80's and I took a break from the posting on the blog entry to actually lay out in the sun on my lounge chair long enough to get strap marks from my swimsuit. Amazing, it's the middle of February! Chuck went over into the pasture next door to us and collected a bucket brimming over full of pecans... that hunting thing again. I soaked a load of white clothes in the bathtub before taking them over to wash at the laundry and we finished out the day with fresh fried chicken breast and that left over potato salad.

Today (Tuesday) is overcast and gloomy. CJ got a nice picture of the dew covered grass when he got up early this morning. The wind is pretty gusty. It's supposed to get cooler as the day goes by. Not a good day for polishing and waxing the coach so I think we're going to head over to Milton to do some antique shopping. We're still looking for a pecan crusher to make the job of shelling pecans easier and I'd rather have an antique one than a new one. They do have them at Ace hardware though, if we can't find an old one. I think we'll go on down to Pace also and stop at the health food store and WallyWorld. Then we're looking forward to supper at Whataburger before we return home.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.bbyvxw4g&x=0&y=-n0qkrp

Wine a little ~ You'll feel better!

Saturday 2/23/08

We had another beautiful week end. The weather was gorgeous and warm on Saturday. The sun was shining brightly although the wind was a bit too chilly to go to the beach as we had originally planned. So instead we headed over to DeFuniak Springs to tour the Chautauqua Winery and Vineyards. And of course do some taste testing. DeFuniak is about 40 miles east of here on I10. We've been past it twice but Saturday was the first time we actually drove that far in the daylight. Both the other times we'd left home in the wee morning hours before the sun came up. So this time we got to enjoy the view of the pine forests of both sides of the highway. The winery is located right off the interstate so we had no trouble finding it. They offered free wine tasting so we could sample away and pick out our favorites. They had some honey wine we'd been looking for and it was heavenly. We bought several bottles. All together we got a dozen bottles of assorted wines so we could get the deal price and stock up as we had drank our last stashed bottle the night we watched the lunar eclipse.

The name Chautauqua was chosen for the vineyards and winery because DeFuniak Springs was the permanent home of the Winter Assembly of the Chautauqua Assembly in "The Land of Summer" from 1885 to 1928. The Chautauqua Assembly had it's beginning in Chautauqua County New York. If you're curious to some of the details I've included this link to "History of Chautauqua in Defuniak Springs"

http://www.defuniaksprings.net/chautauquahistory.html

Many turn of the century homes and the Chautauqua "Hall of Brotherhood" still stand, gracing the naturally formed, perfectly round lake that is in the center of the city along with the old train depot, library & ornate churches.

The 40 acre vineyard was planted in 1979 and is located 12 miles north of DeFuniak Springs. The grapes grown by Chautauqua are Muscadine varieties. Muscadine grapes are native and found growing wild in most areas of the southwestern states. I hadn't realized till we got down here that Florida has such an extensive "wine country" A bonus for us since we both enjoy learning about and sampling wines. The variety of grapes grown by Chautauqua, Carlos and Nobel are improved varieties selected and propagated by the native grapes.

Carlos is a white muscadine variety used for juice and wine and is similar to the well known "scuppernong" muscadine. Nobel is a red muscadine variety and is known for it's full and festive flavor.

At the winery in DeFuniak the grapes are crushed and pressed in a state of the art facility which we got to see through an observation room where we also viewed a video showing the stages of processing. The winery was constructed in 1989 and boasts over 70,000 gallons of temperature controlled stainless steel cooperage as well as over 1,980 gallons of barrels for oak aging.

The current wine press was added in 2004 and is a 12,000 liter Europress custom built for Chautauqua by the Scharfenberger Company of Germany. It's currently the largest press of it's kind east of the Rocky Mountains. This press can extract the juice from over 30 tons of fresh grapes, or 35 tons of fermented grapes in a single load.

The vineyards and winery are owned by Paul and Kate Owens of Brewton Alabama.

It was a thrill to learn all about the operation and see pictures of the harvest and festivals that revolve around the harvest time in the area.

When we left the winery we headed into town to check out the Lake. It's one of two naturally formed, round, spring fed lakes in the entire WORLD. (The other one is in Zurich.) A perfect circle. There's a road that goes completely around it and it's lined with turn of the century homes and Victorian architecture. The sidewalk around the lake is exactly 9/10th of a mile

We walked out on the board walk to the little gazebo on the lake and saw Muscovy ducks. They are certainly odd looking. Chuck said they had them in Wisconsin when he was a boy but I've never seen them before. They were pretty hissy when you got close to them and Chuck thought they probably had nests they were protecting. We also saw loons way out in the middle of the lake but they had their winter plumage still and we couldn't see them distinctly . I was hoping to hear some call but they never did. When we were out on the board walk we met an interesting woman who filled us full of all kinds of information on the history of DeFuniak and the Chautauquans. She told us about the lake and how it had been formed. She said it was sitting over the caverns of lime fields that are in what she called their "basement" and that it was connected underground to the Blackwater River. She said in recent times deep sea divers had gone down into the lake and entered the caverns and swam all the way out to the Gulf of Mexico. I certainly intend to do a bit of research on that. I know it will be quite interesting.

The old train depot where thousands of people used to arrive for the annual Chautauqua Winter Assemblies has been made into a museum of area treasures and cultures and history. I wasn't able to get many good pictures in there as the lighting was poor. We did however manage to snap a picture of an ancient aerial shot of the round lake which turned out quite nicely.

When the railroad began operation in 1882, the train stopped in a little town called "Open Pond," named for the almost perfectly round freshwater, spring-fed lake located in the center of town and within sight of the train depot. The town's name was changed to DeFuniak Springs in honor of the Chief Engineer of the L&N Railroad, Frederick deFuniak. The road encircling the lake is appropriately called Circle Drive. T. T. Wright, was an early developer of the Florida Chautauqua and Defuniak Springs. Circle Drive was originally named Wright Avenue in his honor

The town holds several antique stores which we poked our way through. As a side note, the nice part about living in the motor home is being able to enjoy the merchandise but not having room to buy it and bring it home. Chuck and I both enjoy browsing and sharing discoveries with each other and leaving with nothing more than a few choice snapshots.

We got in on the tail end of a concert in the Chautauqua "Hall of Brotherhood" It was old Victorian music played on antique instruments. They were serenading out on the large back porch area and the music drifted over the grounds making a delightful background to our history lessons. The day was quite a bit more enjoyable than just a simple drive over to get a few bottles of wine which is all we had originally intended.

One thing I have to make mention of is the smell that permeated the town. At first, when we were at the winery I thought it was the smell of the wine and the potpourri they were selling in the gift shop and the grapevines out front. The grapes however don't produce fruit till August and they didn't appear to be blooming and it was just a small patch for show as the real vineyard is miles from there. When we got in town around the lake I could still smell it. Something was in bloom that smelled heavenly. The Camilla's were blooming everywhere we looked but they don't have much of an odor. I even went up and smelled a few to see if maybe they were a strain that did have a fragrance but it wasn't them. I have no idea what it was but I could go on smelling it forever it was so pleasant. Between the perfume and the music and the variety of birds and ducks we got to see along with the history and turn of the (20th) century architecture I would highly recommend a trip to DeFuniak to anyone passing through this area.

I've put together a slide presentation of our photos and some photos I got from the Internet to show you the sights we enjoyed. Click on the link below to get to them.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.94s92vq8&x=0&y=71ag8c

Jubilee Daytona

Saturday 2/16/08

This past week end marked 50 Years for Daytona International Raceway Fans. Chuck and I got to be there to join in the celebration. Thanks to our neighbors Barb and Wally, we had free tickets to the Camping World 300 held there on Saturday. We had the most fabulous seats in the 5th row right across from the pit entrance. We were so close to the cars we could taste them, literally. Our senses were saturated in the sites, smells and sounds of professional racing.

http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/544592.html

We were up early Saturday morning to be on the road towards Daytona Beach by 4:00am. It's over 6 hours from Holt Florida to the racetrack and we had to allow for the 1 hour time difference. We spent much of Friday preparing and the excitement made it difficult to fall asleep early but we both popped out of bed at 3:00am like a couple of Eggo waffles, hot from the toaster. We covered much of the drive east along Interstate 10 before daylight and avoided a lot of traffic. We got to Jacksonville in good time and crossed over the Saint Johns River bridge to make the connection with Interstate 95 South. If we weren't in such a hurry it would have been nice to stop off in St. Augustine for some site seeing but we'll have to save that for another trip. We made it into Daytona Beach by 11:15, their time. We found our way to the free parking on Clyde Morris Blvd. via US 1 to Granada and we were absolutely amazed at how orderly and sensibly they had it all arrainged. After we found our parking spot we made our way to the bus stops where a constant supply of them were waiting to shuffle us off to the track. The crowd was huge, but it kept moving. We hardly had to wait more than a moment or two in any of the lines. When we got off the bus at the speedway we were on the other side of Daytona Beach International Raceway Blvd. from the racetrack. They had tiered cement pathways, not unlike parking ramps for the crowds to move along up and across the bridge and down again on the otherside. Security was tight and we were only allowed to carry in small soft sided coolers and clear plastic bags. I had frozen a couple water bottles and also took several other bottles of drinking water in our coolers. I also made sub sandwhiches and brought chips so we wouldn't have to spend a lot of money on food and drinks. I was surprised they allowed people to bring in so much beer. A lot of people were carrying 24 packs. It didn't take us long to make it to our seats in the Depalma Frontstretch Grandstand and we were in them by noon. They had a giant Sprint Vision Screen directly across from our seats where we could watch the pre-race entertainment. Later this screen came in handy keeping us updated on the progress of the race and live shots of the race as it was happening. That was handy since you can only see the racecars when they are right in front of you. They go so fast you can't even read the numbers on them. As the drivers were coming out in the corvettes to be taken to their cars I was lucky enough to get pictures of Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth. We had seats right at the entrance of Pit Row which is where they were all parked when the famous words announced "Gentlemen Start Your Engines" The noise was fabulous. It sent thrills thru me which tickled my tummy. I can't even begin to describe how excited I had grown by the time the cars finally made it around the fourth turn and paraded past our section of the grandstands. The whole crowd was standing and waving at the drivers as they passed by. I even called my daughter Juli on my cell phone and put it on speaker and held it up so she too could hear the noise too. We settled in to enjoy the race. It was a good clean race and there weren't hardly any incidents and most of the pit stops were made on green flags. The one moment of agony was when Kasey Kahne got into the accident right in front of us towards the end of the race and didn't get to finish. I was so hoping he would win or at least finish top 10 and he was staying right up there until the accident. Thank goodness he wasn't hurt and everyone made it safely thru the race. Stewart led much of the race while Matt Kenseth, Kyle Bush and Dale Jr. put up a great effort so all and all it was a very satisfying race. Our only disappointment was Jeff Gordon not being in it. And it was Chucks very first big race. I don't know which one of us enjoyed it more. I did get a lot of pictures so I could share the thrills with all my friends. We made some wonderful memories.
When the race was over we stayed in our seats and watched the Sprint Vision screen so we wouldn't miss the interviews and celebrations of the drivers and their crews. We weren't in a big hurry to leave cause the crowd was so overwhelming. We were actually quite shocked when we did start making our way out at how easy it was. We followed along with the crowd and kept moving across the bridge and to the bus staging areas. They had the same kind of fenced mazes to send people thru single file that you see at the amusement parks and we never really had to stop anywhere for more than a couple minutes. As fast as buses pulled in they were loaded up and on their way and another bus would pull into it's place. I'm guessing there were at least a dozen buses at all times being loaded. Some smart people did some serious planning to make that go so smoothly. I'm thinking a woman had to be involved Even with all the alcohol being consumed I never did notice any bad scenes or drunk behavior. Maybe it was a hot enough day that the alcohol burned off as fast as they drank it. I did notice a lot of people trying to buy and sell tickets for the big 500 race on Sunday and there were a lot of vendors on the sidelines, even Pappa Johns pizza for sale by the slice for $2. At any rate, everyone was orderly and we made it back to the parking field within 45 minutes after we left our seats. As we were leaving the parking field we noticed a few stray cars going towards the east, away from the general flow of traffic. We wanted to head for the beach so Chuck decided to follow them and they led us out the back way where we didn't get caught up in the traffic jam going out to Clyde Morris Blvd.

When we left there we went straight to the beach and drove right on to it. We had about a good hour to spend before the beach patrol came along with their bull horn telling people to move their cars. It was a beautiful afternoon. The sun was still shining nicely and there were lots of birds. Chuck managed to find a few shells. We both got wetter than we wanted to but it's hard to go to the beach without getting your feet in and since we were on the ocean side, the waves were a lot bigger than what we're used to from the gulf side. We had fun and didn't mind cause the temperature was at least 80. We were also getting tired by this time and slap happy. It had been a long day so far and we were both getting hungry so we set off for Rte 95 in search for a rest area. We had planned on eating sandwhiches and chips and spending the night in our car. The sandwhiches were great, but try as I might I couldn't sleep. Between the noise and the lights and the cramped quarters I couldn't get comfortable and Chuck wasn't either. After a couple hours of cat napping and getting woke up by doors banging next to us as people pulled in and out we decided to give up and head down the road in search of a motel. We found them all full. With all the people in the area for the 50th Daytona 500 the motels and hotels were booked up as far as Cocoa Beach. We didn't want to leave the coast so we kept traveling south till we found a Days Inn in Satellite Beach right across A1A from the beach. We had a plan to get up before dawn and watch the sun come up on the beach but it was well after midnight by the time we got settled in and we didn't wake up in time. Oh well, there's always next year. We did get a good nights sleep though and headed to the beach after a quick continental breakfast at the motel. Chuck loves looking for shells and I of course love taking pictures. The waves were breath taking. We found an area where a pier had been blown away in a hurricane and just a few pieces were left sticking out and close to that were some rocks sticking out of the surf with moss covering them. We enjoyed standing on it and watching the waves roll in. After we had our fill we headed back for showers and checking out then up the road to Cocoa Beach again to hit some of the souvenir shops. It was well after noon before we started up Rte 520for Orlando. We were both getting hungry and found a Whataburger for a quick bite to eat. After we left there my friend Glenda called with detailed directions to her house west of Orlando. She gave such good directions I didn't have any trouble finding her at all. We hopped on 508 toll way and took it all the way across Orlando to the end where we caught the Turnpike north and made it to Winter Garden in no time. I think altogether we spent $3.75 on tolls and Chuck thought we probably saved that much on gas. It would have taken us a good hour or more to come thru Orlando on Rte 50. The last time I was down to visit Glenda, she and her husband Scott had just bought this five acre property in the country and had plans to build. Now they've got their house built and they've got horses and goats and dogs and cats and barns and tack rooms and she's even got a building for her birds. She's got 4 Amazon parrots and 2 Cockatoos. Glenda has always loved animals and worked for a Vet for many years. It was so good to see her again and catch up. We all went out to eat at Sonny's Barbque and had the "all you can eat" chicken special. We visited so long Sonny's closed the place down on us. Then we went back to their place and all turned in cause we had to get up at 5:00 and be on the road again by 6:30 when Glenda and Scott leave for work.

When we left Glendas it was still dark so we stopped at Starbucks and spent way too much on a cup of coffee each. It was the first time I've ever been to a Starbucks. I had a pumpkin spice latte and it was quite good but I doubt I would ever get another one. Once at that price is enough. When we finished our coffee the sun had come up enough for us to go pick some tangelos in the grove next to Glendas house. We got a whole big grocery bag full and some pictures of Chuck picking them. We didn't even see any snakes or alligators.

After we got done with the tangelo picking we got back in the car and headed for the West on Rte 50 to Brooksville and then on to rte.98/19 to Chassahowitzka on the Gulf to do some scouting for RV Parks for next year. We found a great park we really loved at Homosassa on Halls River. It's called Turtle Creek. http://www.turtlecreekrvresort.com/ and another one up the road a bit on the Withlacoochee River called Big Oaks. http://www.bigoaksriverresort.com/ Both resorts in close proximity to the endangered West Indian Manatee's which come in to the warmer water for the winter. It's a beautiful area and definitely on our list for next year.

As we traveled North we took a small detour over close to Cedar Key to check out the birding trail on the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. We would have liked to do some hiking but it was raining a bit so we just drove along and admired the sites from the car. We discovered we couldn't let the car idle too long with the air on cause the engine would get hot. We're thinking Chuck's going to have to change the thermostat this week. That should be a simple job.

By noon we were ready to do some serious traveling. We stopped at Dakotah Vineyards & Winery in Chiefland http://www.dakotahwinery.com/ to taste some wine and buy a bottle to go with our picnic which we then had at the Suwannee River in Fort Fanning. We took a walk thru the park by the river after lunch and saw some wild flowers and azalias in bloom. I found some ferns growing on a piece of bark that had fallen out of one of the oak trees. I put the whole thing in a plastic bag to bring home and plant. Chuck got to see some of the spanish moss up close. He's been watching it from the road ever since we got down here, not knowing if he liked it or not. I told him it's a trademark of the south and it gets much prettier in the summer when the trees are in full leaf. After seeing it up close and touching it he has a better idea of what it is.

It was now time to head home. We'd piddled away enough of the day. On the cruise north, when it started to get dusk we saw several deer along the highway so we had to be especially mindful of that danger. They certainly are small down here in Florida. We got off the smaller Rte. 19 and onto Interstate 10 just East of Tallahassee where they have tall fences along the highway to keep the deer away. From there, after we got past the road construction around Tallahassee it was clear sailing home and we pulled into camp about 10:00pm It certainly was a long and enjoyable weekend. We were sure glad to see our comfy cozy bed. We didn't even unpack the car or get online when we got home. We were asleep by 10:30pm and slept clear thru till 7:30am.

I spent the day Tuesday organizing the pictures and working on the blog to share with you all. The links below will take you to the photos from our week end. When the window opens up simply click the yellow "view slideshow" button towards the right top of the screen. I hope you enjoy them.

Race day photos
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.c0eou340&x=0&y=-m9qgjh

Daytona Beach photos
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.355azzls&x=0&y=-4ehuu8

Cocoa Beach photos from Sunday morning
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.9c9kxdmo&x=0&y=ax05kx

Photos of Glendas Ranch & Tangelo Picking & Wine Tasting
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.4oalk8dc&x=0&y=d3xr9h

Mardi Gras

Beads

Beads

Beads

It's Mardi Gras time in the south. Chuck had never been to one of the parades before. We went online to check and see if there were some good ones close to us this weekend and found lots to choose from. Now which ones do we pick? Our first choice was the one just up the road in the Pensacola. We got there about 5:00 Friday evening. We found an excellent parking place right on the parade route. Of course the parade didn't start till 8:00 so that might explain it. Waiting for the parade to start we walked all thru the historic district and down to the marina at the end of Palafax. We got to see some really super boats, or maybe you call them yachts. They were impressive. By the time we got back to our car it was almost 6:00 and CJ had time for a short nap before the parade started. As soon as the fence people closed off the street by our car we got out and took our place right next to the fence. We had perfect spots to watch the parade. I took some pictures but they didn't come out so well in the dark. At the very beginning of the parade one of the policemen dumped his motorcycle right across from where we were standing and that stopped the parade for a bit. Once things got rolling we caught a whole bag full of beads and toys and candy. Chuck even managed to catch me a lighted superball. After the parade we drove thru Pace and ate at the Whataburger. Now that's one really good fast food hamburger place. Especially the french fries! It was after 11:00 by the time we got home. That's pretty late for us old farts to be out wandering around. We went straight to bed and got up at 7am to get ready and head back into Pensacola to meet our friends Laura and Dave and their grandson Jay Jay. We all headed to Mobile Alabama to enjoy the parade there. Again, we arrived early and got excellent parking places right on the parade route. There was a huge crowd. Thousands of people crowd into Mobile to watch from the birthplace of the parades. There were 2 parades in one starting at noon. Jay and I both filled up our bags with lots of goodies. Chuck and Laura and Dave were helping us catch the tropheys. As soon as the parades were over we hit the streets to scavege goodies left behind. We were even lucky enough to find several coins. Laura had to get a picture of Jay and I when we were done. I've included it in our film strip below. We look like a couple clowns with all our beads and goofy hats. When we left Mobile we stopped at Daphne and checked out the Mardi Gras store called Toomey's. As if I didn't have enough beads, I had to buy some more. We stopped in Fairhope for dinner and then headed for home. Two whipped puppies. It's been such a full week for us old retired folks. We were out and going every day. Monday we went to Walton Beach to Sams Club with our neighbor Glenn. Tuesday we went to Navarre Beach to spend the day and visit my great aunt Charlene. Wednesday we went to Best Buy in Pensacola and stopped off to see Dave and Laura. Thursday we went shopping in Crestview for warm parade coats and groceries. Thursday nite we had big storms moving thru with rain and wind. I was running back and forth doing the laundry thru it all. Friday and Saturday were filled with the parades and today, CJ was outside washing the coach. In fact lots of people were taking advantage of the warm sunshine to wash and wax their coaches. All week long was pretty chilly with frost everynight but by Saturday it had warmed up and was a wonderful week end with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures. Tomorrow we'll put the awnings back out and bring the hanging plants back out. Tonight after supper the campground is having a campfire across the lane from our coach. That should be fun. I'll have to send CJ to the store for the marshmallows.

Click on the link for Parade pictures.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.iys2btk&x=0&y=h41qsw

Here's some pictures of CJ washing the coach and roof.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.mbf77iw&x=0&y=-60ltm5

Link to Fat Tuesday Parade Pictures in Mobile Alabama (added 2/5/07)
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.190hdqug&x=0&y=-gxxfvt

A few links that tell about the history of Mardi Gras and what it symbolizes

http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm

http://www.novareinna.com/festive/mardi.html

http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/html/mardi_gras_history__timeline_mobile.htm